Trends in clinical and prognostic characteristics of gastric cardia adenocarcinoma

Gastric cardia adenocarcinoma (GCA) is one of the most common malignant tumors in China. In recent years, researchers abroad have reported a significant increase in the incidence rate for GCA. Although there is still no statistical data for the epidemic of GCA in China, some regional research has shown an annual increase in the rates of hospitalization and treatment for this cancer. 4 To understand the clinicopathologic and prognostic characteristics of GCA, we selected 589 patients with adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction seen at the Sun Yat­sen University Cance Center between 1984 and 2003. Then, we conducted a retrospective study to analyze their clinicopathologic data and prognostic outcomes. Selection standards included (1) patients with pathologic diagnoses of adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction type II (AEG II) and categorized for staging after surgery and (2) patients with complete follow­up data, where the time and status of these patients were carefully noted (that is, alive, dead, or withdrawal). Exclusion criteria included (1) clinical data that were not complete and statistical analysis based on these data was not possible and (2) patients that had other malignant tumors or had histories of malignant tumors.